Feel free to come and go as you please on the Outerbridge Crossing this weekend.

Roadwork on the span has been suspended for the holiday, with the Outerbridge remaining open to motorists from 5 a.m. Friday through Tuesday evening, the Port Authority announced Thursday.

The $23 million pavement-replacement project began July 9 with overnight closures Monday through Thursday, from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. the following morning, and from 11:59 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday.

However, those hours will shift after Labor Day. Beginning Tuesday night, the closures will start an hour earlier at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and last until 5 a.m. the following day. The span will still close at 11:59 p.m. Friday, but will not reopen until 8 a.m. Saturday.

Those changes are expected to last until sometime in October when the roadwork wraps up. In the meantime, motorists will continue to be diverted to the Goethals Bridge, approximately 10 miles up the road.

"It is still on time to finish in October," P.A. senior public information officer Christopher Valens said of the project, which includes rehabilitating the roadway deck, curbs, safety walk, and parapets, and the full pavement of the lanes on both sides of the span.

By completing the work on the Outerbridge this year, it will enable the Port Authority to keep the span open next year when the agency begins raising the road bed of the Bayonne Bridge to allow larger container ships to pass beneath it.---Follow @siadvance on Twitter, join us on Facebook